Featured Post

One hundred people’s ninth favourite thing: [title of show] @swkplay

Image
[title of show] takes you back to a time before the fast paced social media where word of mouth for a positive show came from chat boards, video diaries or (god forbid) blogs. A simple staging makes it an ideal (and economical piece to stage), but it’s sweet and earnest take on just putting on a show, and putting it out there and taking a chance gives this show its heart. With a strong and energetic cast and endless musical theatre references, it’s hard to resist and it’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse .  It opens with Hunter (Jacob Fowler) and Jeff (Thomas Oxley) as struggling young writers in New York City. An upcoming New York Musical Theatre festival, inspires them to write an original musical within three weeks to make the deadline. As they discuss ideas, writers block, distractions and endless other good and bad musicals, an idea for a show emerges. Which is about writing a show for a musical theatre festival.  Their friends Heidi (Abbie Budden) and Susan (Mary Moor

The fog of war: Correspondence @ORLTheatre


Boys on Xbox, the crisis unfolding in Syria, a disappearance and a psychotic episode. It all happens in Correspondence, currently playing at the Old Red Lion Theatre. It's at times thrilling but its also a bit bewildering.

Flicking through the programme twenty minutes into Correspondence, I read the note about psychotic symptoms. It seemed a little odd as until that point it seemed like this piece was about two boys on Xbox. One who just happened to be in Syria.

But soon we're exploring mental illness. There is so much going on here that it is hard for the piece to get focussed on any of its broad themes it's exploring in its ninety minute duration.



Lucinda Burnett's piece is very topical. Even more so when you catch it in the week marking the five year anniversary of the start of the conflict. But it also has an incredibly strong cast and slick production.

Joe Attewell gives a strong performance as the sixteen year old Ben. Ben doesn't have any friends and spends most of his time on his Xbox or writing stories for a school newspaper. Only when he is talking to his friend Jibreel (played with emotional intensity by Ali Ariaie) does he come to life. Jibreel works in an internet cafe in Daraa, which on 15 March 2011 became the spark for the Syrian conflict.

Jibreel disappears from online and so Ben decides to become detective and set off to find him. As if travelling from Stockport to Syria were an Easyjet flight away.


Travelling with Ben is school bully Harriet, played evocatively by Jill McAusland. She calls him 'Shitbiscuit' so many times in the piece it really sticks in the mind long after seeing the show. You may be even tempted to use it afterwards on your friends... Assuming you're comfortable with the meaning of the word...

The deisgn by Bethany Wells and lighting by Chirstopher Nairne is evocative. And the sound by Giles Thomas will make you jump either at the explosions or the sound of Katy Perry.

But the finely drawn characters feel like they are lost in a sea of concepts.

Correspondence runs at the Old Red Lion until 2 April.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue .   Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple.  The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial security
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...